Chair.



PATENT'BD- A1111. 14, 1903.

J. A. WHITGOMB. GHAIR. y.MPLIQATION FILED 1.11115, 1901.

2 SHEETS-SHEET l.

1Y0 MODEL.

m: nofws Ps1-:Rs co, mow-uwe PATENTED APR. 14, 1903.

J. A. WHITGOMB.

CHAIR.

APPLIoATIoN FILED APR. 5.1901.

2 SHEETS-SHEET Z.

lNrrnn Stamps Parleur rc,

JAMES ARTHUR VHITCOMB, OF BOSTON, `MASSACHUSETTS CHAN?.

SPECIFICATION formingpart of Letters Patent No. 725,186, dated April 14, 1903. Application filed April 5) 1901. Serial No. 54,506. (No model.)

To all whom, t may concern:

Beit known that I, JAMES ARTHUR WHIT- COMB, a citizen of the United States, residing at Boston, in the county of Suffolk and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Chairs; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My invention relates to certain improvements in chairs, more especially for use in what are termed dairy or coffee7 lunch rooms. ,J

It has for its object, among other things, to provide a strong and comfortable chair which is convenient and economizes space or room and has special fitness for the particular purpose for which it is designed. Itis also characteristic for enabling the occupant to readily change his sitting posture as comfort or colloquial courtesies may suggest, while it can be manufactured cheaply and to suit the taste, dto.

To these ends the invention consistsof a chair having a single or only one arm adapted to serve for lunch purposes; of such a chair having affixed thereto a shelf or rest and devoid of means to effect the connection of said shelf or arm to the chair-back, whereby said connection may be readily and nominally provided for; of a peculiarly-constructed seat, preferably of interlaced cane or like character, and of means specially adapted in applying or fitting the seat to the seat-frame, sub'- stantially as hereinafter more fully disclosed, and specically pointed out by the claims.

In the accompanying drawings, illustrating the preferred embodiment of my-invention, Figure l is a perspective view thereof. Fig. 2 is a sectional view taken through the seat. Fig. 3 is a broken sectional View disclosing more particularly the dowel-pin connected between the chair arm or shelf and back and said shelf or arm and its front-leg connection. Fig. 4L is an enlarged view taken through a chair leg and round. Figs. 5, 6, and 7 are sundry detail views disclosing more particularly the wedge and the somewhat tapered form of a front-leg round and the two forms in which the wedge may be made.

Latitude is allowed herein as to details, as

they may be changedV or varied at will without departing from the spirit of my invention, and the same yet remain intact and be protected.

In carrying out my invention I construct the chair of a suitable back l, a seat 2, back standards 3, and front legs 4 and a single arm 5, said legs and back standards being connected up by bars 4X, preferably cylindric in cross-section. Said arm is preferably connected by a dowel-pin '7 to a front leg at its top7 which pin does not protrude through said arm or shelf, said leg havingan upward extension 4 for that purpose. This arm has, preferably, the form as shown, being widened laterally outward Atoward the forward end, which may for symmetry be rounded or curved, thus enabling it to conveniently serve as a shelf or rest for the arm or articles. The dowel-pin connection 6, especially between the arm or shelf 5 and the back standard, is to provide for readily improvising such a connection as contradistinguished from the formation integrally with said armi or shelf of a tenon or projection; otherwise in the event of the breaking off of which tenon or its becoming loose said arm or shelf with a tenon thereon in its entirety wouldhave to be displaced and another substituted therefor. The dowel-pin connection 7, between said shelf or arm and the forward leg extension 4f, also serves a like purpose therefor. Y If, however, it be desired, a tenon may be formed on' the standard extension 4L in lieu of using a dowel-pin.

The seat 2, preferably of cane, contacts with and passes over and under the bars 4X. Said seat is composed of an upper portion or seat proper, 2f, also of a lower portion 2m, the two, however, being continuously con` nected up by continuous strands of the cane or of other suitable material, with their meeting ends suitably fastened together. Said upper and lower portions or sections of said seat are each constituted or produced by weaving or interlacing the cane strands, although the continuous `cane strands contacting with the bars 4X are not interlaced with other crossing strands of cane. By this construction and arrangement of parts, notably thus forming or constituting the seat of two sections or portions each of interlaced or woven IOO fabric or cane strands, it has been found in practice that the bagging of the seat as ordinarily constructed of cane work or like character is compensated or counteracted, the seat thus always retaining or presenting a practically dat or even surface, however long the chair may have been in use. As it has been found in practice, however, that the lacing or putting on of the seat fabric had the effect to lift or distort the short front leg out of the normal or above the plane of the seat, being the least 'securely braced, I have provided against this in the following manner: The front chair-rounds 8 are somewhat beveled, also the rounds 8X at one side, with the taper terminating at their ends, as at 8, and the front or corresponding short and long chair-legs are provided with inclined sockets 9. The extreme ends ofthe rounds engaging the sockets of said legs have initially slipped into slits 9 therein wedges 10, which may be either cylindric or rectangular in cross-section, so that as the rounds are driven home or to their maximum limit of penetration therein such bevel will permit the rounds to readily enter the sockets and be forced farther into said rounds and eect the spreading of the ends of said rounds in the direction of the least resistance or toward the beveled surfaces of the rounds.v This action deflects the spreading portion of said rounds, so as to fill said sockets, while so disposing said rounds has the effect to brace said short leg as against upward displacement or distortion from the normal or the plane of the seat, as found would otherwise be the case by the strain exerted by the lacing of the chair seat or fabric and yet provide for the bringing of said leg to such normal position, it originally being so disposed that its lower end shall be an inch or more below the lower ends of the other legs.

The left or short front leg 4t stops at a point about flush with or in the plane of the upper surface of the chair, thus dispensing with or omitting the usual upward extension thereof, and one arm is accordingly dispensed with. This arrangement provides for greater facility or ease in seating ones self and in rising, also lessens the liability of the catching on the chair of any articles protruding from the coat-pocket, permits the occupant to change his sitting posture for comfort or other purpose, and economizes space or room-as, for instance, in the placing of chairs in a row or side by side, arms of adjoining chairs being interchangeably utilized.

Having thus fully described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. A chair-frame consisting of rear legs extended upwardly to form a back, a front leg extended above the seat and braced to said back, a second front leg extending only to the seat and having its lower end initially resting on a plane below that of the other three legs, and rounds connecting said legs.

2. A chair-frame comprising rear legs suitably joined together and extended upwardly to form a back, a front leg extending above the seat and braced to the back, a second front leg having its lower end initially resting on a plane below that of the other three Alegs and provided with downwardly-inclined sockets adjacent legs having correspondingly upwardly inclined sockets and rounds engaging said sockets.

3. In a chair the combination of a frame, a back, a forward leg extended above the seat and braced to said back, a second forward leg having its lower end initially resting on a plane below that of the other three legs and a seat adapted to finally effect the holding of the lower end of said second leg on a common plane with the other legs.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

J AMES ARTHUR WHITCOMB.

Witnesses:

MoRvEN THOMPSON,

EDWIN B. H. TOWER, Jr. 

